Plastic wall tile for packing



oct. 15, 1957 M MACCAFERR; 2,809,544

PLASTIC WALL TILE FOR PACKING O INVbNTOR',

Y (BALL/121A@ ATTORNEYb Oct. 15, 1957 M. MACCAFERRI 2,809,544

PLASTIC WALL TILE FOR PACKING Filed Sept. 22, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 2ATTORNEY.,

ignited States Patent 'i Prasrrc WALL ma non PACKING Mario Maccaferri,Rye, N. Y.

Application September 22, 1954, Serial No. 457,593

3 Claims. (Cl. 72-18) This invention relates to certain improvements inplastic wall tile and in the design and construction thereof by whichsuch tiles will be maintained in proper positions relative to each otherwhen stacked for packing and when in the packaged forms made up ofthe'tile stacks; and the nature and objects of the invention will bereadily recognized and understood by those skilled in the art to whichthe invention relates from the following detailed description andexplanation of the accompanying drawings illustrating severalembodiments or structural expressions of the invention from amongvarious other forms, embodiments and constructions of which theinvention is capable within the broad spirit and scope thereof asdefined by the claims hereto appended.

Plastic wall tiles are now being manufactured and eX- tensively sold invery large quantities and are in widespread general use. Such tile areusually molded from plastic material and take the form of a veiy thin,lightweight tile body having at the rear side thereof a relatively thinrearwardly extending edge flange therearound by which the tile isinstalled on a surface to be covered thereby. The front sides of thetiles are usually generally planar and provide the decorative facesthereof which are exposed with the tiles in installed positions. Thesethin, lightweight tiles are usually installed in position by setting therear flanged sides thereof into a suitable mastic or cement coatingwhich has been applied over the surfaces to be covered by the tile. Thefront decorative surfaces of these plastic tiles have characteristicssuch that they are very readily scored or marred by Contact with anyeven lightly abrasive surface, in fact, they are easily scored or marredby rubbing or sliding engagement with the similar decorative surface ofanother of such tiles, such as caused by vibration between packagedtiles in transit, particularly if such surfaces are canted or tilted outof parallelism with each other.

The manufacturers of these plastic wall tiles generally follow thepractice of packing the tiles by piling them in stacks made up of pairsof tile with the tiles of each pair placed back-to-back, that is, withthe flanged rear sides thereof in abutting engagement. When the tilesare so packed, the generally planar front faces of each pair tiles in astack are at opposite sides of the pair and abut and are in engagementagainst the faces of the adjacent tiles of adjacent pairs. The tiles areusually package-'l storage and shipment by placing a plurality of suchof pairs of tiles so arranged in a box or carton v, i l may then besuitably closed or wrapped to contain and hold the tiles until thepackage opened for use. The tiles when so packaged are not tightly boundbut are relatively loose in t. e carton or package, so that vibration,such as particularly encountered during transportation of the packagedtiles causes the engaged surfaces of the tiles to rub against eachother.

This generally practiced method of packing and packaging these plasticWall tiles has developed a serious problem in high cost of packaging andin the number of tile damaged through front face marring occasioned byPatented Oct. 15, 1957 r'ice rubbing engagement between adjacent frontfaces of the tiles in the stacks thereof in the package. It is foundwhen so packing the tiles in stacks that due to the engaged flanged rearsides of the pairs of tiles, one tile of a pair will tend to, andfrequently does, shift from the de-A sired position of substantialparallelism with the other tile of the pair and with the tile adjacentthereto in a stack and because of the edge angcs will then, in effect,be constrained into that position against normal relative movement backto a position of parallelism. When so canted or tilted out ofparallelism with the adjacent tiles, the engaged front faces of adjacenttiles will then very readily score or abrade and be marred or defaced toan extent such that the tile is not acceptable to the purchaser or userfor installation. This results in substantial numbers of the tiles beingrejected or returned to the manufacturer or seller thereof. With pairsof back-to-back tiles in a stack maintained in parallelism it will befound that there is greater resistance to relative movement offeredbetween the engaged faces of adjacent pairs than between the engagedbacks of a pair due to the greater area of surface engaged between thetile faces than engaged between the tile backs. ln addition there tendsto be a static locking between the engaged faces which increases theresistance to relative movements therebetween. Thus, l have discoveredthat if the tiles can be maintained substantially parallel, then therelative movements therebetween such as caused in transit, can besubstantially limited to movements between the backs of each pair oftiles with surface marring movements by engaged tile faces substantiallyeliminated.

The plastic wall tile manufacturing industry has, in an attempt toovercome or reduce this problem, resorted to the practice of placing anindividual piece of paper, tissue or the like thin material between thefaces of adjacent tiles in a stack of tiles for packaging in order totry to prevent the marring, scoring or other defacernent of the tilesurfaces due to tilting or canting of the tiles in relative movementstherebetween. The insertion of such protective papers or tissues betweenfaces of adjacent tiles has not, however, provided a satisfactorysolution to the problem, primarily because of the very substantialexpense in labor and materials, particularly as it was found that thecheaper grades of paper or tissues presented abrasive characteristicsthat merely forrned a new source of marring or defacing of the tilefaces when the tiles shifted or canted and tilted relative to each otherin the packaged tiles under the conditions encountered from vibration intransit and in the handling of the tile packages. While grades orcharacters of papers and tissues have been found that were more suitablefor the protective purposes for which intended than the cheaper grades,nevertheless the very high cost thereof makes their use almostprohibitive in the highly competitive plastic wall tile market. And inaddition to the foregoing diiliculties with the protective papers ortissues it has been found that due to the generation of staticelectricity, the insertion and removal c'f such protective papers isvery diflicult for the oper or installer and substantially slows downthe pacldng and unpacking of the tile which further increases packingpackaging costs, as well as installation costs.

A general object of my present invention is to substantially reduce thepossibility of tile face scoring or defacing by relative movementsbetween engaged faces of adjacent tiles in a stack or package thereofwithout requiring the use of protective inserts, such as inserts ofpaper or tissue, between the adjacent faces of tiles in a stack orpackage thereof.

A further object is to provide `a design and construc* tion of plastictile by which relative movements of the tiles in a stack thereof made upof pairs of back-to-back tiles will be confined primarily to relativemovements which results from any relative movements between the tileswhen they are out of substantial parallelism and angularly positionedrelative to each other.

Another Objectis to provide a plastic tile` having at the rear or backside thereof a system and arrangement of leveling and positioning ribsby which an adjacent tile,

, when placed thereon in back-to-back relation therewith will tend tomaintain a position substantially parallel therewith and thus eliminatethe tendency of one tile to tilt or cant relative to the other withresulting increase in tile face damage, while permitting relativemovements between the back-to-back tiles with a minimum of frictionalresistance.

A further object is to provide a design and construction of such asystem of positioning ribs which will be inexpensive to mold onto aplastic tile as integral parts thereof and which will not requireexpensive mold work.

A further object is to provide such a system of leveling and positioningrib members having the outer edges thereof forming suitable slidewayswhich will pemit limited minimum friction movement of an adjacent tilethereover while maintaining the tiles in substantial parallelism. Y

And another general object is to eliminate or substantially reduce tileface damage during packing of the tiles and in'packages thereof by asimple and inexpensive construction of the tiles themselves so as toeliminate added handling operations and the use of additional packingmaterials in the packing and packaging thereof with the resultingsubstantial reduction in the high costs of the present packing andpackaging methods.

Referring to the accompanying drawings in which similar referencecharacters refer to corresponding parts throughout the several figuresthereof:

Fig. 1 is a view in rear elevation of the back or rear side of a plasticwall tile having a rearwardly extending edge ange therearoundincorporating the system of positioning and leveling ribs of myinvention..

Fig. 2 is a detail transverse sectional view through the tile of Fig. 1,taken as on the line 2 2 thereof, the thickness of the tile body, edgeflange and rib being greatly exaggerated.

Fig. 3 is a transverse section also greatly exaggerated as to tileflange and rib thicknesses, taken through Vthe tile of Fig. l as von theline 3 3 thereof.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a stack of tiles of the design andconstruction of Fig. l with the tiles being arranged in pairs with thetiles of each pair in back-toback relation.

Fig. 5 is a transverse sectional view taken through adjacent pairs ofthe stack of tiles of Fig. 4, as on the line 5 5 of Fig. 4, the tilebody, edge ilange and positioning ribs being greatly exaggerated inthickness.

Fig. 5a is a transverse sectional view similar to Fig. 5, but taken ason the line Srl-5a of Fig. 4 to show the side positioning ribs.

Fig. 5b is a View similar to Fig. 5a but showing one tile moved relativeto the other with the tiles maintained parallel. Y f

Fig. 6 is a View in rear elevation of another form of plastic wall tileprovided with the system and larrangement of leveling and positioningribs of the` invention.V

Fig. 7 is a detail transverse sectional view throughthe tile of Fig.'taken as on the line 7 7 thereof, the thick- Fig. 8 is a detailtransverse sectional view through the tile of Fig. 6 taken as on theline 8 8 thereof, with the thickness ofthe tile body, flange and'sealingribs being shown greatly exaggerated.

A plastic wall tile of a type now being widely manuf factured andinstalled, is disclosed in Fig. 1 of the drawings, as incorporatingtherein the system and arrangement of leveling and positioning ribmembers of my present invention.Y This plastic wall tile T of Fig. l issquare in plan, having Vdimensions of approximately 4% x 41/4 across therear or back side of the tile, with a thin, plate-like body 10 havingcompletely therearound the continuous and unbroken rearwardly extendingedge flange 11 extending from the back or rear side 12 of the tile body10. These plastic tile of the general` form exemplied by the tile T ofYFig. l are usually injection molded from suitable thermoplasticmaterials or compositions, such, for example, as a polystyrenecomposition, with the tile body 10 in this instance having a thicknessof the order of approximately .062. The rearwardly turned edge ange maybe taken to have a thickness*V of approximately 0.048", with the widthof the rear edge surface thereof being of the order of approximately Y0.032. The maximum over-all thickness or depth yof the tile T of Fig. 1from the front or face forming side 14 thereof to the edge surface 11aiof the edge'ilange 11 may be taken to be approximately 0.10 while thedepth of the edge flange 11 from the bevel surface 11b which it formswith the face side 14 is approximately 0.107". The standard tile of thetype of tile T of Fig. l comprises solely the tile body 10 andtherearwardly extending edge iiange 11.V It will therefore be readilyappreciated that when a pair of tile of such Va construc-v tion areplaced back-to-back with the vedge anges 11 thereof abutting andengaged, one tile, due to the very thin or narrow Width rear surfaces11a of the edge flange 11 thereof will readily slide or slip laterallyrelative to the other tile so that one side or corner portion of onetile will slip inwardly into canted or tilted position relative to theother. When in such a tilted position, the tile will resist efforts topush it backinto proper position in substantial parallelism with theother tile because the edge flange of the tilted tile will engageagainst the inner side of the adjacent edge flange of the other tile.Now, when pairs of tile of this standard, widely-usedtype are packagedby stacking them in pairs in the manner hereinbefore described, it willbe apparent that there will be many of the tiles of the stack which willslip from parallelism with the adjacent tiles and thus cant or tilt intorelative positions in which handling and movement of a packagecontaining such stack will result in rubbing, abrasive action betweenthe engaged faces of the canted or tilted tiles and the adjacent tiles.This results in marring or defacing the decorative faces of the tilesand causes rejection of such defaced tiles by the purchaser, with theconsequent loss to the manufacturer and/ or the seller.

By my present invention I have effectively overcome the problem of tiledefacement and damage in the pack-V ing of the tiles in stacks and inthe packaging of such stacks of tiles by providing a system andarrangement of leveling and positioning components lon the rear or backsides of the tiles in the form of relatively small and narrow ribmembers which may be molded integrally with each tile at no substantialincrease in the cost of the tile over the standard or conventional formsthereof. With the plain type of flanged plastic wall tile of the form ofFigs. l through 4, such system of rib members, referring now to Fig. l,may comprise the diagonally positioned corner ribs20 and the side ribs30 positioned along each side length of the rearwardly extending edgeflange 11. In this particular example, because of the square form anddimensions of the 'tile T, I have provided each side portion of the edgeflange 11 with two (2) of such rib members 3G spaced substantially equaldistances apart along such flange portion. In this system of levelingand positioning rib members and 30, the rib members are moldedintegrally with the rear side 12 of the tile body 1G and with the innersides of the flange 11 around the edge of the tile body, as will beclear by reference to Fig. l.

Each corner rib member 20 in the example hereof extends inwardly at anangle of approximately 45 to flange 11 from the corner edge 15 formed bythe joindure of the adjacent flange portions 11 a distance on and acrossthe rear side 12 of the body 10. Each corner rib member 2* projectsrearwardly from the rear surface of the rear side 12 of the tile bodyand from its outer end for a distance inwardly from flange corner 15 hasa depth such that the upper edge surface 21 thereof lies in the plane ofthe rear edge surface 11a of the flange 11, as will be clear byreference to Fig. 2. From a point intermediate of its length the ribmember 26 progressively decreases in depth to provide the inwardlyinclined upper edge surface 22 which terminates at its inner end at andmerges into the rear surface of the back or rear side 12 of the tilebody 10. The upper edge surface 21 of a corner rib member 20 which liesin the plane of the rear edge 11a of flange 11 provides a slideway orguide surface adapted to be engaged by portions of the back or rear ofan adjacent tile placed in back-to-back relation therewith, as will bemore fully explained hereinafter.

The so-called side rib members 30 are generally similar in thickness orwidth to the corner rib members 2t) but are of less length. Each of suchrib members 30 is molded integrally with the tile body and the flange 11in position extending rearwardly from the tile body 1t? at the rear side12 thereof for a distance inwardly from that portion of flange 11 withwhich it is integrally joined. Each side rib member 3d has a portionthereof extending inwardly from the flange 11 to a location intermediatethe length of the rib of a depth such that the rear edge surface 31thereof lies substantially in the plane `of the rear edge surface 11a ofthe ange with the rib member then progressively decreasing in depth fromsuch intermediate location to its inner end to provide the inwardlyinclined rear edge surface 32. The inner end of the inclined surface 32merges into and joins with the rear surface of the rear side 12 of thebody 10. The rear edge surfaces 31 of the spaced side ribs 30 provideslideways or guide surfaces for engagement by portions of the back of atile when placed in back-to-back relation therewith. These side ribmembers 3@ are in the instant example positioned substantially normal tothe sections or portions of the tile edge flange 11 from which theyextend, as will be clear by reference to Fig. l.

I have shown in Fig. 4 of the drawings a stack or partial stack of tilepairs P each made up of tiles T pla-ced in back-to-back relation withthe faces 14 of the adjacent tiles of adjacent pairs being in abuttingengagement over substantially the entire face areas thereof. From aconsideration of Fig. 4 it will be apparent that such a stack of tilesmade up of pairs of the conventional flanged tiles of commerce will, asto the tiles of each pair, be merely supported in their back-to-backrelation when in the desired parallelism only by the edge anges 11thereof when the narrow rear edge surfaces 11a of such edge flanges areabutting and seating on each other. The slightest movement of or forceapplied to one of the tiles of a pair of tiles will dislodge anddisplace it from position supported in parallelism with the other by theabutting tile edge ianges 11 and the tiles will then take the undesiredpositions canted or tilted from parallel relation, as hereinbeforereferred to and described. However, with the tiles T embodying thesystem of leveling and positioning rib members 2e and 36 of myinvention, such displacement of the tiles from the desired parallelrelation therebetween is prevented by the series of inwardly extendingslideways 21 and 31 of the rib members 20 and 30 spaced apart around thetiles of a pair of back-to-back tiles. This is so because, with such ribmembers spaced apart around the tiles and providing the inwardlyextending guide surfaces or slideways, the rib members will be alignedand engaged upon each other when the tiles of the pair are truly alignedone upon the other. And if one tile is displaced from such true positionof alignment with the other, it will be maintained in its parallelrelation with the other tile due to the inwardly extending slideways 21and 31 of the rib members 20 and 30 positioned as these slideways are inthe planes of the rear edges 11a of the flanges of their respectivetiles. Thus the tiles T of each of the pairs of back-to-back tiles in astack of such pairs, such as in the tile stack shown in Fig. 4, may havelimited relative movements therebetween in any direction in the planesthereof, but such relative movement or" a tile will always be in a planesubstantially parallel with the tiles adjacent thereto. in stacking thetiles for packaging the operator may handle and stack the tiles rapidlywith assurance that they will maintain parallel positions, andinterlocking between the back-to-back tiles will be prevented as thetiles will not in the normal handling thereof cant or tilt relative toeach other.

In addition to the maintenance of substantial parallelism between thetiles, another important feature of my invention which contributes tothe solution of the problem of defacement of packaged tiles caused byvibration in transit and in handling is the substantial elimination ofrelative movements between the engaged faces of tiles of adjacent pairsof back-to-back tiles in a package thereof, by the transfer andconcentration of relative movements to movements between the backs ofthe tiles in the pairs of back-to-back tiles. This result is obtaineddue to the i' rge frictional resistance aided by static locking betweenengaged faces of adjacent pairs of tiles compared to the relativelysmall frictional resistance between the lsmaller engaged surface areasat the backs of each pair of tiles. Hence, with the elimination ofinterlocking `and tilting between the tiles of each pair of back-to-backtiles and the maintaining of the tiles parallel even when relativelymoved (see Fig. 5b) the required relative movements resulting fromvibration in the transportation and handling of the packaged tiles ismet and satisfied by movements between the tiles of' the pairs ofback-to-back tiles with rubbing andface marring by relativemovementsbetween the engaged faces of tiles of adjacent pairs reduced toa minimum.

ln Figs. 6, 7 and S I have disclosed a self-sealing form of plastic walltile of my invention which is disclosed and claimed in an applicationfor patent tiled by me and now pending in the United States Patent Oce.I have shown this form of self-sealing wall tile herein Iasincorporating and embodying the system of leveling and positioning ribsof my present invention as hereinbefore described and discussed in theappli-cation thereof to the well-known and widely used plain anged Walltile of the commercial art. Referring to Fig. 6 in particular, Iaself-sealing plastic wall tile ST is disclosed as of the dimensions andbody and flange thicknesses of the order hereinbefore set forth inconnection with the plain wall tile of Fig. 1. This wall tile STincorporates the relatively thin plastic material body it! andrearwardly extending edge ange 11 of the tile as shown in Figs. lthrough 5. However, tile ST is pravided on the rear or back side thereofwith a plurality1 et' spaced parallel sealing ribs 4t? extending alongand parallel with the side portions 11, respectively, making up thefrange 11. The outermost sealing rib 4t) is spaced inwardly a distancefrom the adjacent side por. tion of the edge flange 1l `and the sealingribs 40 extend completely across that side of the tile on which they arelocated and intersect and cross at their ends with the adjacent ends ofthe sealing ribs 40 along the adjacent rear surface of the tile.

sides of the back of the tile. The intersection and crossing-over of theends of each side set of sealing ribs 40 thus forms in each corner ofthe rear side of the tile the relatively square, closed side recesses 41between the crossed end lengths of the sealing ribs, as will be clear byreference to Fig. 6. In the specific form of tile ST of this example theupper edge surfaces of the ribs 40 lie in planes spaced a distanceinwardly from `a plane passing through the rear edge surfaces 11a of theilange 11.

A system of leveling `and positioning ribs in an arrangement similar tothat providedY on the tile T of Fig. l is incorporated on the rear sideof the self-sealing form of tile STand comprises the corner rib members50 and the side rib members 60. The corner rib members 50 aresubstantially identical with the rib members 20 of a tile T of Fig. l,and such rib members extend from each corner of the ilange 11 inwardlyover and rearwardly from the rear side of tile ST at an angle ofsubstantially 45 to the adjacent side portions of the ilange 11. Eachcorner rib member Sil provides the rear edge surface 51 extending fromthe adjacent corner 15 inwardly a distance from the corner 15 in theplane of the rear edges 11a of the flange 1l. The rear or inner lengthof each corner rib member 5t) has the progressively inwardly inclinedrear edge surface 52 similar to the rear edge sur-face 22 of a cornerrib member of the tile T.

The side rib members 60 of the tile ST are generally similar in locationon the rear side of the tile to the side rib members of tile T butextend across and intersect the sealing ribs in the manner shown in Fig.7. Each side rib member has the rear edge 61 thereof located in theplane of the rear edge 11a of the adjacent portion of llange 11 withwhich the side rib member is integrally joined. From the rear or innerend of the rear edge surface 61 the rear surface 62 thereof isprogressively inclined inwardly to and joins at its inner end with theThe rear edge surfaces 61 and 62 of each side rib member 60 thus provideslideways or ramps by which the ribs and flange at the rear side of anadjacent tile ST when a pair of tiles are placed in backto-back relationwill be guided and prevented from interlocking with the maintenance ofparallelism between the tiles being thereby aided in'conjunction withthe functioning of the corner rib members 50.

It will be clear from the detailed explanation of the functioning of andthe results from the system of leveling and positioning ribs of theinvention as incorporated in the tile T of Fig. l, that when such systemis incorporated in the tile of the form of tile ST of Fig. 6, the sameresults in the maintenance of parallel relationship between tiles of apair and tiles adjacent to the pair will be obtained so that eliminationor substantial reduction in damage to engaged tile faces due to relativemovements therebetween in a stack of such tiles will result.

While in the selected examples hereof I have shown plastic tiles ofsquare plan shape, such showing is not by way of limitation as thesystem of leveling and positioning rib members in accordance with theinvention may be applied to tiles of any tile shape, including therectangular, the circular, and various other curved edge or perimetershape of tile. Similarly, in the examples selected I have shown two (2)side rib members from each side portion of the tile edge ange, but suchnumber is in no sense critical in either the tiles of the illustratedexamples or in any other shape or size of tile. The number of side ribmembers will be primarily determined by the dimensions of the tile aswell as by its particular shape. In certain instances I contemplate andintend that only the diagonally disposed corner positioning rib membersneed be used and therefore my invention in all respects is notessentially limited to the inclusion of the side rib members. Similarly,if desired in certain instances, the corner rib members may beeliminated and the side rib members only used in relative locations onthe tile to include the function of the corner rib members.

In the illustrated examples the side rib members are shown as of lesslength than the corner rib members butsuch length relationship is notbasically essential to a proper functioning and to eicient results fromtiles, including the positioning rib systems'of the invention.

It will also be evident that various other modifications, variations,embodiments, constructions, arrangements and combinations may beresorted to without departing from the' broad spirit and scope of myinvention and, hence, I do not desire or intend to limit the inventionin all respects to the exact andV specific disclosures of the selectedexampleshereof, except as may be required by specific and intendedlimitation thereto appearing in any of the claims hereto appended.

What I claim is:

l. An all-plastic tile comprising, in combination, a thin, light-weight,plastic material tile body of plate form providing a front side having asubstantially planar front face area thereover, an opposite generallyparallel rear side having a substantially planar rear surface areathereover, and outer side edges therearound; said tile body havingrearwardly extending side edge llanges along and integral with saidouter side edges of said tile body, respectively, with the rear edges ofsaid side edge flanges located in a substantially` common plane; saidrearwardly extending side edge flanges being integrally joined at thecorners, respectively, of said tile body forming a continuous side edgeflange therearound surrounding said rear surface of said rear side ofsaid tile body; a plurality of side positioning rib members integrallyjoined at their outer ends with and extending vshort distances inwardlyfrom` and disposed transversely relative to each of said side edge angesat spaced intervals therealong; corner positioning rib members on therear side of said tile body at the i corners thereof with the outerendsofisaid corner positioning rib members integrally joined with said sideedge anges; said corner positioning rib members extending transverselyinwardly short distances over the rear side of said tile body integrallytherewith; and said side positioning rib members and'said cornerpositioning rib members having the rear edges thereof from their outerends at said side edge flanges to locations intermedate their lengthslocated'substantially in the common plane of the rear edges of said edgellan'ges; and said side positioning rib members and Vsaid cornerpositioning rib members having their rear edges from said intermediatelocations thereon progressively inclined inwardly to and merging attheir inner ends into said rear surface of the rear side of said tilebody. i

2. A plastic wall tile comprising, in combination, a thin plasticmaterial tile body of plate form providing a front side having asubstantially planar front face area thereover, an opposite generallyparallel rear side having a rear surface area thereover, and outer sideedges therearound; said tile body having rearwardly extending edgeflanges along and integral with said outer side edges thereof with therear edges of said flanges located in a substantially common plane; saidrearwardly extended edge flanges being joined at the corners,respectively, Vof said tile body forming a continuous edge flangetherearound surrounding said rear surface of said rear side of said tilebody; sealing ribs on the rear side of said tile body around the innerside of and parallel with said edge flanges positioned in closeproximity thereto spaced inwardly a small distance therefrom formingnarrow channels therebetween; said sealing ribs having the rear edgesthereof located in planes spaced inwardly in a direction toward saidrear surface of said tile body from the Y'cornmon plane of said rearedges of said edge iianges; positioning rib members integrally joined attheir outer ends with and extending inwardly from each of said edgeflanges at spaced intervals therealong; said positioning rib membersextending transversely inwardly across and integral with said sealingrib members over and integral with said rear surface of said tile body;each of said positioning rib members having the rear edge thereoflocated substantially in the common plane of the rear edges of said edgeflange from the outer end of said positioning rib member at said edgeange to a location intermediate the length of said positioning ribmember at the inner side of said sealing ribs; and the rear edge of eachof said positioning rib members from said intermediate location thereonbeing progressively inclined inwardly to and merging at the inner endthereof into the rear surface of the rear side of said tile body.

3. An all-plastic wall tile comprising, in combination, a thin,light-weight, plastic material tile body of plate form providing a frontside having a substantially planar front face area thereover, anopposite generally parallel rear side having a rear surface areathereover, and outer side edges therearound; said tile body havingrearwardly extending edge iianges along and integral with said outerside edges thereof, respectively, with the rear edges of said edgeflanges located in a substantially common plane; said rearwardlyextending edge anges being joined at the corners, respectively, of saidtile body forming a continuous rearwardly extending edge angetherearound surrounding said rear surface of said rear side of said tilebody; sealing ribs on the rear side of said tile body around the innerside of and parallel with said edge flanges positioned in closeproximity thereto spaced inwardly a small distance therefrom formingnarrow channels therebetween; said sealing ribs having the rear edgesthereof located in planes spaced inwardly in a direction toward saidrear surface of said tile body from the common plane of said rear edgesof said edge anges; side positioning rib members integrally joined attheir outer ends with and extending inwardly from each of said edgellanges at spaced intervals therealong; said side positioning ribmembers extending transversely inwardly across and integral with saidsealing rib members over and integral with said rear surface of saidtile body; a corner positioning rib member located on the rear side ofsaid tile body at each corner of said continuous edge flange with itsouter end integrally joined with said edge ange at such corner;

each of said corner positioning rib members extending diagonallyinwardly over said rear side of said tile body integral therewith andacross and integral with said sealing rib members; each of said sidepositioning rib members having the rear edge thereof locatedsubstantially in the common plane of the rear edges of said edge flangefrom the outer end of said side positioning rib member at said edge angeto a location at the inner side of said sealing ribs intermediate thelength of said side positioning rib member; the rear edge of each ofsaid side positioning rib members from said intermediate locationthereon being progressively inclined inwardly to and merging at theinner end thereof into the rear surface of the rear side of said tilebody; each of said diagonally extending corner positioning rib membershaving the rear edge thereof in substantially the common plane of therear edges of said edge flanges from said corner of said edge iiange toa location intermediate the length of said corner positioning rib memberspaced inwardly of said sealing ribs; and the rear edge of each of saidcorner positioning rib members from said intermediate location beingprogressively inclined inwardly to and merging at its inner end into therear surface of said rear side of said tile body.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 723,979Blackmore Mar. 31, 1903 1,690,259 Strauss Nov. 6, 1928 1,702,912 McCoyFeb. 19, 1929 2,156,149 Feichter Apr. 25, 1939 2,425,619 Juergens Aug.12, 1947 2,645,329 Blair July 14, 1953 2,666,373 Mattson Jan. 19, 1954FOREIGN PATENTS 3,727 Great Britain 1909 446,435 France 1912 434,297Great Britain 1935 438,599 Great Britain 1935 615,609 Great Britain 1949

